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by rustyliver
Summary: She had a dream. For lordsparky's request from a prompt meme: bodyswap.


She had a dream last night. Of a life filled with ever changing strange faces and a longing for a pair of dark green eyes. She was searching for them among the faces and at times, she would find green in their eyes but they were never the right shade. Then she remembered that she was not supposed to look for them. That was why it was so lonely. She was supposed to run as far away from them as possible.

But when she woke up this morning, those green eyes, the exact same shade, were staring back at her. She panicked. She scrambled to find the small suitcase that had become her home for the past four months.

She did not find it. What she found instead were neatly stacked clothes in the cupboard, tastefully arranged books on the shelves and a tiny bear on the bed.

And the memory of a terrible perfect night.

She knew what had happened. She had noticed it immediately when the floor felt a little too low.

She was just too afraid to look in the mirror again and hear the broken promises she whispered to Myka that night.

Calm down, she tells herself. It should wear off in about twenty four hours.

And Myka should be safe, provided that she stays still.

But that is the problem. Myka will not quietly sit and wait while she is in Helena's body. Honestly, Helena is not surprised if Myka is already on a plane or a boat heading towards America.

"Don't worry, Agent Wells," a voice says as if to soothe her worries.

She turns and finds Mrs Frederic opening the curtains and saying, "You must be dying for some sunlight considering where you were."

She doesn't ask how. She had learned a long time ago that it is futile to ask that question to a caretaker. A caretaker will explain in their own time what you need to know.

"She used your emergency Farnsworth and since mine is the only one it could contact, she told me what happened."

"How is she?" Helena asks.

"She is fine but we had to detain her because she stubbornly insisted to return to the Warehouse."

Well, that solves the problem.

"She won't be so happy with you when she gets her body back," she tells Mrs Frederic.

"She won't," Mrs Frederic says calmly. "But there are more important things at stake here than Agent Bering's fondness of me. She will understand."

Helena doubts it. She still remembers Myka's flushed face when she sneaked out of Myka's room early dawn while Myka was still asleep. But apparently, Myka is a light sleeper. She chased after Helena and demanded to know why she was leaving.

"I told you," was her silly non answer.

"You can't tell me," Myka said, her voice much softer than it was before. "But you said…"

And Helena felt worse than when Myka was shouting at her. "We both said things."

"I said I understood," Myka said, "which was a lie and you said you didn't want to leave which obviously was a lie too."

"I…" her voice trailed off. She almost said it. She almost said she did not want to leave but she had to for the good of the world. But that would only make her sound like some noble idiot when she was neither noble nor stupid. The truth was she accepted the responsibility of protecting the astrolabe to redeem herself. To be as close to the person who Myka deserves to be with. Because try as she might, she could never stay away for too long.

And Myka, despite all of Helena's faults and mistakes, is always there waiting for some reason.

"We all make sacrifices, Agent Wells," Mrs Frederic says, seemingly out of the blue. She had just finished explaining how Helena will volunteer to stay at the Warehouse while everyone else is sent to their own special mission to lower the likelihood that she will be found out. "You might be lucky enough to witness the outcome. Who knows?"

…

No one questioned her when she volunteered to stay. In fact, they seemed very supportive of it.

Pete even said to her, "It's about time you take break."

"Why?" she asked.

Pete flinched, "Uh, because you've been working really hard and," he kept stealing glances to Claudia who looked away whenever Helena turned to her, "you know, you deserve a break for a job well done." He then crossed his arms and covered both his shoulders with his palms. "Right, Artie?"

Artie nodded and Helena was certain she saw the widest smile she had ever seen from Artie (even if it was a forced one). "Yes. You've been doing a very good job. Treat yourself with cookies and inventory," he said which earned him a sharp glare from Claudia, "or not."

She told them she did not mind doing the inventory which Artie accepted very gladly. But then Claudia cleared her throat loudly which somehow prompted Artie to shake his head. "No," he said with an uncharacteristic cheer in his voice. "You should take the day off."

"Inventory is my way of relaxing," she imagined Myka would say.

And everyone exclaimed various words of encouragement to her.

She did not question their behavior as they did not question hers. She wasn't going to arouse suspicion towards her by asking unnecessary questions.

She thinks if they keep acting this weirdly throughout the day, chances are they will not notice that she is not Myka until after she has returned to her own body.

"Hey, Mykes."

"Hey," she greets Pete as she reads the description on the display screen.

"You got a minute?" Pete asks.

"Yes," she puts the clipboard on the shelf and turns to face Pete.

"No," Pete says, waving his hands. "You could take inventory and I'll talk. I just wanted to make sure you…wanted to talk."

That is awfully polite of him.

"It's fine," she says. "I am all ears."

"Are you sure?"

She nods.

Pete opens his mouth and closes it again.

Helena chuckles. "I promise I won't kill you."

"Promise?" Pete asks very seriously, no sign of a smile evident on his face.

"Promise," she affirms.

"I know you don't like to talk about it so I won't ask," he tells her, each word uttered carefully. "But you look different today. Less," he looks at her as if to find some kind of approval, "sad," then he adds quickly, "which is great! I'm glad you're trying to move on."

"Move on from what?" she asks.

"You're right," he answers. "There's nothing or no one you're moving on from." He starts to back away from her. "But just so you know, H.G. has no idea how lucky she is." He stops for a moment and smiles before turning away. "Okay, I have to go now. Artie's waiting for me and you know how grumpy he gets the longer he waits. Have fun!" he shouts as he runs towards the stairs.

What has she done?

She knows it was hard on Myka when she left. But she did not think that Myka would be so heartbroken to the point that it is noticeable to everyone. Myka has always been guarded when it comes to her emotions. She remembers that it took a while before Myka opened up to her about Sam. But Pete, Claudia, Artie, Leena and Steve are her family. They probably would have noticed it even if Myka did not say a word about how she was feeling to them.

Helena wants so badly to fix it but if the astrolabe falls into Brother Adrian's hands, Myka would lose everyone she loves not just Helena. And there is a cosmic joke somewhere in a world that lost hope shortly after she died a martyr.

…

It turns out the enemy is closer than she thinks.

She found them while she was reorganizing Artie's desk. Three months of running have made it impossible for her to have an idle moment. She managed to finish Pete's, Steve's and Myka's inventory duties within four hours. Claudia's was impossible without injuring Myka's body. She did try to sit and read one of the books she borrowed from Myka's room but she kept checking on corners to make sure no one was watching her.

She was constructing a plan to safely do Claudia's inventory when she saw the clutter that was Artie's desk. So she decided it was for Myka's best interest that she tidy up Artie's desk instead.

There were thirty of them. Black diamonds. Eleven more than the missing artifacts.

It should not surprise her. The Warehouse has a way of changing a person. She should know. She has first hand knowledge of it.

The first thing she thought of was to inform Mrs Frederic of it. Get her to put Artie away as he so eagerly did when she was debronzed. But then she thought this might be beyond Artie's control. Why else would he be so supportive of her reinstatement as a Warehouse agent? He knows of her experience with time artifacts. She is the most likely person to uncover his plans to alter time again. She has to be sure before she condemns Artie to some horrid punishment.

So she requested Steve's help.

"Why are we doing this again?" Steve asks.

"I'm just curious," she says.

"I'm not some science experiment you know."

She shrugs. "I understand," she says, looking down. "I just thought it would be fun." She adds a little pout. That should work with how everyone is walking on eggshells around Myka.

"Fine," Steve sighs. "I'll do it."

"Oh, here he comes," she says, gesturing towards Artie who just came from the umbilicus. "Artie," she calls. "I wanted to ask you something about the inventory."

"What about it?" he asks, eyeing his desk suspiciously. "Did someone touch my stuff?"

"I tidied it up a bit."

Artie's forehead creases. "A bit!" he cries out.

Claudia who was filling out her mission report quickly rushes towards them. "But, it's nice, right?" she says while looking pointedly towards Artie. "Look!" she picks up the pair of glasses on the desk. "Your glasses that went missing a year ago."

He grunts but says, "I guess." He examines his document tray. "Now I know what I'm supposed to read and what I'm supposed to send out even though I don't need some labels to tell me what to do."

"You're welcome," Helena says.

"So you wanted to ask something?" Artie says, checking his drawers.

"Yes, I just wanted to make sure I got the right number of missing artifacts.

"Nineteen," Artie answers as he opens the bottom drawer. He had kept the black diamonds in there underneath the files. There should be some kind of reaction from him when he sees that they are gone.

He is looking quite annoyed but it is Artie. He is always annoyed with something.

"Anything missing?" she asks.

"As long as you didn't throw anything out," he says, checking the files. "Did you?"

Helena shakes her head.

"It doesn't look like anything's missing," Artie stops at the last file. "But everything is in the wrong place."

Claudia quickly interjects, "Well, now you can find your files according to…"

"The date," Helena says.

"Like a normal person," Claudia adds.

Artie slams the drawer shut. "I had a system," he grumbles.

…

"He wasn't lying," Steve tells her.

"What if he believes in his lie?" Helena asks. "Would you be able to tell?"

"Hmm…" he contemplates it for a moment. "Honestly, I never thought about it. I mean unless you have some kind of a mental illness, there is no reason for you to believe your own lies." He narrows his gaze. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"No."

"Now that is an example of a lie," he says.

"Good," she says, smiling. "You are truly a human lie detector." She pats his shoulder and heads for Myka's bedroom.

"What's up with this place and secrets?" she hears Steve mutter.

She should not be happy about this. Artie is obviously affected by the astrolabe and is unconsciously trying to erase the good that he had done which means she will die if he succeeds. And yet, she is smiling because this means she could stop running.

She just has to inform Mrs Frederic of her discovery.

…

When she enters Myka's room, she finds Mrs Frederic already standing next to the window.

"We have a problem," she tells Helena.

Then she informs Helena that Myka had escaped and is now on a plane to Chicago with the astrolabe. And if Artie finds out that she has it, who knows what he will do?

"She can't be here," Helena says. "I…" suddenly she feels a violent tug in her stomach.

"Are you okay?" Mrs Frederic asks.

"I think we don't have to worry about Myka anymore." It is happening. She is going back to her body. "Meet me in Chicago," she tells Mrs Frederic as she crouches her way to Myka's desk.

She hastily grabs the first paper and pen she could reach for.

While she is rather fond of her suitcase, it is not her home. That night. That horrible wonderful night was the first time she felt at home for a very long time; in Myka's embrace.

Myka is her home.

She scribbles the words quickly.

Myka should be the first person to know.

And soon after she finished writing the last letter, she finds herself staring at a flight attendant who is asking her what drink she would like.

…

Myka is angry. She is really angry.

And the first person she sees is the one who locked her up in a prison in Moscow.

"I know how you must be feeling right now," Mrs Frederic says.

"Do you?" she cries out. "Do you? Have you ever woken up in someone else's body so you panic and call a person you thought you could trust and she tells you to wait so you wait and half an hour later, you're in a prison?"

"Okay, I might not know exactly how you feel but there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for it."

"Tell me," Myka demands.

"I am not at liberty to say."

"Well, that's gre—"

Something catches her eye. Someone ripped out the first page of a paperwork she needs to submit tomorrow and wrote on it. She has a pretty good idea who did it. And she already knows that she will still be angry no matter what it says.

She isn't wrong.

But she isn't right either.

"Damn it, Helena," she mutters as she hold the paper in her hand.

It says, "I will be home soon."


End file.
